The Download

The Cannabis Control Commission met for the first time on Monday, and two of the five members refused to say whether they had ever smoked pot. Commissioners Jennifer Flanagan, a former state senator, and Shaleen Title, who worked on the ballot question that legalized recreational marijuana, declined to say whether they had used marijuana. Britte(...)

Yankees-Red Sox, Celtics-Lakers, Donald Trump-World. There’s nothing like a good rivalry and when the Boston Herald and Boston Globe engage in a tong war for readers, it makes for great reading and, for those of us in the business, riveting inside baseball chat. But the latest contretemps has little to do with content and it’s(...)

The number of reported rapes and sexual assaults on college campuses has been on the rise in recent years but not because of more attacks, according to officials. The increase is attributed to enforcement mandates issued by the Obama administration in 2011 requiring colleges and universities to take reported assaults more seriously or risk losing(...)

Steven Hoffman was successful at just about everything he did during his long business management career but, even by his own admission, his latest venture was proving difficult to master. “I was failing at retirement,” said the affable 64-year-old Lincoln resident, who is the new chairman of the state Cannabis Control Commission regulating the emerging(...)

So solving one important part of the immigration reform puzzle is now all up to a Congress that hasn’t been able to organize a two-car funeral. Trying to appease his hardline base while arguing that he’s also showing a measure of compassion for those that his base would be happy to round up and send(...)

Gov. Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey, and Treasurer Deborah Goldberg stacked the Cannabis Control Commission with people who voted against legalizing recreational marijuana. Four of the five appointees voted against the ballot measure, and now will be charged with implementing marijuana legalization on a fairly tight timetable. Already, people are saying there won’t be(...)

With last year’s election of Donald Trump, complete with his campaign talk about about bad hombres and Mexican rapists, it’s hard to feel too optimistic about the prospects for comprehensive — and reasoned — immigration reform. Trump adds a loud exclamation mark to what had already become a starkly partisan divide on the issue. But(...)

College campuses are anxiously waiting for President Trump’s decision on whether to dismantle or even substantially change the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. DACA was an executive order from then-President Barack Obama in 2012 that stopped deportation of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children and who pose no security threat. But(...)

Government, according to a well-worn adage credited to Barney Frank, is the name for the things we decide to do together. Right now, aiding those affected by the devastation of Hurricane Harvey is, of course, the most pressing thing we are doing together. President Trump visited Texas yesterday, and the White House and Republican congressional(...)